MA DE MER MELDS FRENCH-JAPANESE FARE WITH FINESSE

Mark KnoblauchCHICAGO TRIBUNE

Restaurateur Jimmy Ma has become a dominant force in Clark Street dining. His Lan`s Too and Samurai Sushi have already established themselves on the strip, and now he has opened Ma de Mer. Representing a departure from the usual Oriental-American formula, this new outpost serves French food reinterpreted in a Japanese idiom.

Marrying Japanese and French cuisines has been a goal of contemporary chefs. As French cuisine has evolved recently toward light, pure, fresh tastes, chefs realized that the Japanese have sought similar ideals for centuries. In fact, no other cuisine demands complete freshness more than raw fish, sushi and sashimi`s fundamental ingredient. Moreover, both cuisines emphasize appearance`s critical importance--good food must be admired before it`s eaten.

But trying to put together disparate, conflicting ingredients like cream, cheese, soy sauce and raw fish has demonstrated that not all of this marriage`s offspring thrive. Ma de Mer has succeeded where others have failed. The restaurant turns out some good blends of French and Japanese foods, but not all the produce of its kitchen rises to the same level of competence.

The single most successful linking of the two cuisines occurs in the salad that accompanies each entree. This crunchy mix of fresh iceberg lettuce, alfalfa sprouts, enoki mushrooms, tomato, cucumber and radish couldn`t be better complemented than with Ma de Mer`s light vinaigrette dressing, heavily aromatic with fresh ginger. The salad`s only shortcoming is its pedestrian iceberg lettuce base; a mixture of bibb and Boston lettuces or romaine would turn it into one of the city`s best.

Best and most inventive of the first course offerings, snails aurora benefit from applying Japanese sensibility to French ingredients. Instead of being stuck into ramekins or back into their own shells, the plump, lightly garlicked snails perch on two hollowed-out blanched tomato halves. Ma de Mer pools a traditional aurora sauce of tomato and cream around these tomato boats and adds a rosette of pale green sauce as a color accent. This bit of sauce tingles from wasabi, the Japanese horseradish that gives sushi its kick. Wasabi`s nose-tickling pungency counters the rich creaminess of the aurora sauce, keeping it from cloying.

Sometimes Ma de Mer`s cross-cultural patterns harmonize, and at other times they merely clash. Another of the restaurant`s first-course choices, a sashimi plate of slices of raw tuna and yellowtail with a pair of steamed shrimp presents many a diner with a logistical problem. Those accustomed enough to eat raw fish to order this dish are likely from force of habit to prefer a pair of chopsticks for this course. Eating sashimi with knife and fork is as impossible as eating pizza with chopsticks.

Furthering patrons` discomfiture, sashimi`s requisite soy sauce appears on the table in a French-style silver sauceboat with a ladle. Naturally, there`s a small mound of wasabi to spice up these very fresh and thick fish slices, but mixing the horseradish paste into the soy sauce is virtually impossible when the sauce runs all over the plate. Fastidious sashimi eaters throw up their hands in horror at the brown mess developing on the plate. Besides the traditional raw fish selection, the plate holds a slice of smoked salmon formed into a roselike garnish.

Shrimp Ma de Mer come with a hollandaise-like sauce recalling the egg sauce used on shrimp at Japanese steakhouses. While this particular sauce complements the shrimp, a mayonnaise addition to the seafood pate comes too close to sweetened sandwich spread.

Ma de Mer takes few liberties with classics like onion soup. Thick with tender slices of onion and topped with just the right amount of melted cheese crust, the soup warms on a cold winter`s night.

Ma de Mer`s simple entrees clearly display their Japanese influence. Although dominated by seafoods, the menu lists enough red meat items to satisfy those wanting something more substantially filling.

Seafoods are more forgiving cooked than eaten raw. Ma de Mer`s fish are usually fresh, but occasionally a piece appears that has been sitting a bit too long. One night`s turbot in bonne femme sauce had a strong enough taste to overbalance its delicate cream and mushroom sauce. Overall, the restaurant`s fish come perfectly cooked. A slice of halibut under a light mornay sauce oozes juices as it falls into thick flakes with every fork stroke. So far the best fish dish on Ma de Mer`s evolving menu is its swordfish in provencal sauce. Both the juicy, delicately cooked fish and its accompanying tomato-garlic sauce with bits of onion adding texture are worth savoring.

Among the meats, a good strip steak in soy and onion sauce spiked with several hot, dried peppers reminds that Japanese cooks do as well with grazing animals as they do with the bounty of the sea. Four grilled lamb chops make a hefty portion, and the kitchen treats them respectfully, keeping them properly rare. Both of the accompanying sauces are duds, one a bright green mint sauce, the other a brown sauce also unpleasantly sweet.

At dessert all pretense of combining French and Japanese traditions is tossed aside in favor of French selections. A caramel custard, a cheesecake and a strawberry tart have no real parallels in the Japanese tradition. Ma de Mer`s creme caramel is especially creamy, and its caramel sauce has a perfect, deep brown, burnt sugar sweetness. More like a Bavarian cream than the usual New York style, lime-kissed cheesecake shimmers with a pleasantly light, slightly gelatinous texture.

If consistently produced, Ma de Mer`s strawberry tart could be a real find, its fresh berries covered with tart red raspberry sauce. One night`s pastry was excellent: rich, crunchy, buttery and fresh; at a second dinner it was soggy and tasted of being too long in the refrigerator.

By combining two such different cuisine traditions, Ma de Mer has skirted some dangerous shoals, but it happily stays enough on course to treat diners to some pleasant and worthwhile culinary novelties.

The ratings reflect the reviewer`s opinion of the food in relation to price compared with other similar restaurants in the Chicago area. Reviews are based on no fewer than two visits. More visits are made when necessary. The reviewer makes every effort to remain anonymous. All meals are paid for by The Tribune.